Ex-Trump aide laments that his former boss has ‘turned into Mussolini’

People who call Donald Trump a fascist have often been dismissed as left-wing hysterics — but what happens when it’s a former campaign aide who’s making the accusation?

Ex-Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, whom Trump is suing for $10 million for allegedly leaking dirt to the press, tells Buzzfeed’s McKay Coppins that he’s been horrified watching at how Trump has turned increasingly authoritarian during his presidential campaign. Specifically, he cites Trump’s encouragement of violence at his rallies as particularly troubling.

“He started out as the Republicans’ Obama, and somehow it’s turned into Mussolini,” Nunberg laments.

Of course, this is largely how Trump has always campaigned — remember how he kicked off his presidential run by claiming that Mexico is intentionally sending drug dealers and rapists to create chaos in the United States?

And Nunberg himself resigned from the campaign last year over a controversy over some racist Facebook posts he wrote, so it’s not like he’s some innocent babe in the woods when it comes to race baiting.

At any rate, Nunberg also explains to Coppins that he really fell for the cult of personality surrounding Trump, and he still has moments where he wished things could have ended up differently between the two of them.

“I loved Donald like an uncle,” Nunberg says. “I’m not telling you this to sound — and I hate saying it like this, but — gay. But maybe that was the problem. Not only was I invested in the idea of him running, but I was too emotionally invested.”